Claims to the oldest religion

A claim of an "oldest religion" can be made in various contexts. In the context of paleolithic religion, it entails earliest evidence for the origin of religion in human prehistory. Surviving indigenous religions such as Australian aboriginal mythology may be interpreted as conservative continuations of paleolithic religion or "natural religion."

In the context of organized religion, especially monotheism, claims of an "oldest religion" may be attached to a dating claim of a founding figure such as Vyasa (dated to the remote Dvapara Yuga in the Vishnu Purana), Zoroaster (dated as early as "6000 years before Plato in some classical sources) or Abraham (dated to ca. 1800 BC in Jewish tradition following Maimonides). In the context of a given religious faith, literal belief in a creation myth may be the base of such claims in the context of creationism (e.g. Biblical literalism, or literal belief in the Hindu Puranas).

• paleolithic religion
  • traces of worship of the python discovered in the Ngamiland region of Botswana, dated to some 70,000 years ago.
• reconstructed or postulated prehistoric religion
  • claims of primeval monotheism, see Urmonotheismus
  • various scenarios of Catastrophism tracing the origin of religion to some natural disaster
• folk religion, shamanism, "natural religion" or ancestor worship are sometimes identified as the "Urreligion"
  • Australian aboriginal mythology; Rainbow Serpent
• organized religion
  • historical
    • Ancient Egyptian religion, attested from the Early Bronze Age; ultimately absorbed into Hellenistic religion and magical traditions.
    • Mesopotamian religion, attested from the Early Bronze Age; ultimately evolved into Abrahamic traditions.
    • Vedism (sometimes subsumed under Hinduism); parts of the Rigveda are assumed to have been composed in the Late Bronze Age
  • current traditions
    • Zoroastrianism: the historical Zoroaster is assumed to have lived roughly around 1000 BC.
    • Jainism: Mahavira is dated to the 6th century BC. Less accepted is the dating of Parsva to the 9th century BC.
    • Present-day Hindus often assert that Hinduism is "the world's oldest religion". Hinduism includes a wide variety of schools with no definite founding figure; historical organization into the classical Darshanas takes place in the 2nd century BC. Puranic tradition dates the "splitting of the Vedas" by Vyasa to about 900,000 years ago. Shrauta is a conservative tradition of Vedism within Hinduism, surviving in a few Brahmin families in South India.
    • Islam is sometimes identified as the "oldest religion" or "Urreligion" in the sense of Urmonotheismus.
    • Judaism (Abrahamic religion), informed by the Biblical creation story or Biblical literalism.
• new religious movements
  • Godianism claims to be the "oldest religion"
  • Umbanda claims to restore primeval religion.

See also

• Origin of religion
• History of religion
• List of founders of religious traditions
• Claims to be the fastest growing religion
• Oldest language
• Antiquity frenzy